A California-based nonprofit is helping deliver an effective solution to the ongoing issue of health care accessibility in Zambia.

Zambikes International, founded in 2007 as a high-quality bicycle manufacturer, has been distributing hundreds of "zambulances," small trailers attached to bicycles or motorcycles, to provide remote Zambian communities with a practical and comfortable method of medical transportation. The nonprofit has delivered almost 1,000 Zambulances to various rural Zambian regions, according to its website.

Although Zambikes develops its own bicycle models and other transportation accessories -- such as cargo trailers -- the organization's executive director, Tom Larson, feels that the its most socially important invention has been the Zambulance.

Zambikes' impressive work addresses a significant part of a larger issue of health care accessibility in Southern Africa.

A lack of access to health services in Zambia, for example, is caused not only by inadequate means of transportation but also by a deficiency of skilled doctors and nurses, Chelsea Clinton recently wrote in a blog piece for the Clinton Foundation.

"In Zambia today, there is one doctor for every 23,000 people, well above the World Health Organization’s recommended ratio of one doctor and nurse to 7,000 people for Africa," she wrote. "As a result, people die from preventable or curable ailments because they fail to get medical assistance in time, unable to travel the long distance to the nearest medical facility."

Levels of maternal mortality, child mortality, education status, poverty and women’s participation in parliament are among the most challenging in the world. The DR Congo performs in the bottom 12 percent of countries across all indicators, and bottoms out as the single most challenging place to be a mom.
• Lifetime risk of maternal death is one in 30
• One in six children will die before his or her 5th birthday
• Less than nine years of formal schooling is expected
• $190 gross national income per person
• Women hold 8 percent of seats in national parliament
<strong>Pictured at left:</strong> Florence, who gave birth to her 10th child, Aksante, within a camp near Goma after fighting broke out in their village and they fled. While she had prepared for this child by bringing baby clothes and other items, they were unfortunately stolen after her arrival at the camp.